Haunted Years
by D3rozic
Summary: Left alone in the decrepit halls of Garreg Mach, Dimitri could only hear the voices that haunts him still.


He could still hear them. Many years had already passed and yet they would not leave him. The whispers of the damned, those who had died and left him in his grief. They were calling his name. Always tortured with their urging for vengeance. He wished they could haunt somebody else, but he knew they would stick with him for the rest of his days.

The taste of revenge, to kill those who did them wrong. Every night and day they would never let him rest, always demanding for more. Sometimes he wonders, if he was already dead as well and he just could not merely accept his fate.

The dead begged for mercy, for relief. He could not give any and it was his fault.

"Dimitri, you must avenge us"

"The Empire must fall for what they did!"

"Kill Edelgard, Dimitri, it was her fault"

"Her fault!"

"It's the only way"

"End this!"

"Kill her!"

"Kill"

"Kill"

"Kill"

**"Kill"**

**"KILL!"**

"SILENCE!" his voice echoed throughout the empty ruinous halls of Garreg Mach. His throat raw from the shout, he was tired. Too tired of this. All he wanted was for it to end.

A shadow blocked his view, their body a faint mist that hovered across the stone floor. His eyes glanced at the new presence, a familiarity bloomed within his heart.

"Glenn" Dimitri whispered.

"Hey there, your highness" The dead man waved at him cheerfully. He wore the standard armor of the Knights of Faerghus but the symbol of the house of Frildarius was present as an emblem on his plate.

"You… you are dead"

"I thought that would be obvious, your majesty"

Dimitri gazed away from Glenn, feeling downtrodden. "Then you too are just another spirit to haunt me".

Glenn reached out, his hands grasping his shoulders. "Don't be like that, Your Royaltyness, I don't think I'd ever haunt you. I would want you to stand up and move on"

Dimitri chuckled, unbelieving of his words "Move on? How can I move on?!".

Glenn shrugged "I don't know about that, Your Holiness"

Clicking his tongue, he spat out the words "Stop calling me those! I am no longer worthy of bearing it"

"Come on, Your Princeliness. I want you to live and not squander on the past"

"You are not Glenn, you are a mere figment of my imagination"

Glenn suddenly grew quiet. "I may not be real Dimitri, but you chose us to be. The weight of our deaths still burdens you so. Let us go Dimitri"

"Let you go?" He questioned.

"The guilt you carry is misplaced, if I were the real Glenn, I would not want you to" Glenn said, his right arm patting his shoulder, trying to comfort him with that easy grin on his face. He remembers the days when he and Felix would team up against him to try and beat him, but Glenn had already been trained and they never stood a chance.

"Let us go Dimitri"

Dimitri grunted as he turned away, trying to face the wall. What would Glenn know, the guilt he bared all these years. They would not just disappear no matter how he tried.

"Dimitri dear"

He froze, it was a voice he didn't expect to hear in so long. Not after the Tragedy of Duscur.

"My boy, you've grown so much"

Patricia, his stepmother, gazed at him with the loving look like she did years ago. He swallowed the clump of saliva in his throat and yet it felt like it was drier than any desert in the world.

"Mother?"

He wanted her to prove him wrong. That the figure in front of him was not in anyway his stepmother at all. She kneeled in front of him, the same warm smile on her face, glad to see how her stepson was faring. Yet her eyes betrayed her, a sadness that threatened to overwhelm her as he felt himself start to choke up.

"It's me, Dimitri"

Shaking his head, he denied everything. There was no way it was her.

"You are not her, she died many years ago. You are not her!" He growled, as if daring the spirits to taint her image.

Her lips quivered, her eyes watered and hands shook as she tried to reach for him. "Dimitri, it must have been so hard for you. All these years" she whispered.

"I have hardened my heart to all these tragedies, they mean nothing"

The statement only saddened her further. "Dimitri, only you can help yourself. You need to let us go"

"I don't need help, I've… I've made it through all this by myself. I had to… If I wanted to reach my goal".

She nodded in understanding "Dimitri… please, forgive her"

Rage filled him, it was like a volcano waiting to erupt. How dare she. After he suffered through so much misery that she would have the gall to ask him to forgive her.

"YOU WANT ME TO FORGIVE HER?" He shouted at her but realized she was gone. Her apparition had disappeared in his bubbling anger.

"Dimitri" A calm voice called for him. He swirled to face the next one, his spear ready to pierce through and destroy. It only stopped at the last second when he got a good look of his next visitor.

Standing in full regalia, his father, King Lambert, stood with a smile. "My son, it has been too long"

Grinding his teeth, he put down the spear, facing away from his father. Laying his back against the wall, he tried to close his eyes to get some rest, but it was clear that he would not leave.

"Go away, I do not need such foul spirits to destroy the only good memories I have left" he growled. How dare they try to tarnish the image of his father, he would have none of that.

King Lambert proceeded to sit down beside Dimitri. "My son, you carry such a heavy burden with you. I don't need to know of your experience to know it was hard but this path you walk is treacherous. Heed you fathers' words, please"

Dimitri scowled "I do not care for my own demise, as long as _she_ breaths. I will find her and kill her! I will take her skull and crush it beneath my feet!"

Lambert shook his head, "No Dimitri, that is a path to destruction for both you and your allies. I do not wish to see you with such anger and hatred"

"She took you away from me, she took Glenn and Mother, she took the people of Duscur, she took Garreg Mach, she took Dedue and you want me to forgive her for such sins?!" he shouted, the words echoing through the empty halls.

"I cannot answer that for you Dimitri, only you can" he said sombrely.

"She… she took the professor, on that day when Garreg Mach fell. She took Professor Byleth from us … from me" he whispered. He looked down to his palms, the amount of blood that had stained was far too much for him too count. The life of thousands alone rested on his hands. Could he face his friends once more? When he was no better than the monsters he faced.

"You must let go Dimitri, let go of us, you cannot move on so long as we are here".

"I… I can't" he looked up to see his father gone, he was alone once more. Staring at the outside, the moon shone brightly on his face, he wondered when he would see his own sunrise from his own darkness.

A couple of hours had passed, and he still had barely any sleep. Patrols from the empire come around often and there was no rest until Edelgard was defeated. The sun had risen by now and a new set were probably already on their way here.

His body was on alert more than ever, his senses reaching out for any signs for enemies. He was ready to face them even though he was too tired both physically from battle and mentally from facing his own demons.

The grip on his spear tightened, footsteps heading towards his direction. Their feet move in confidence and many corpses that litter the area did not disturb them, coming ever closer.

Who was this intruder?

Gazing ahead, his eyes faced the person that dare disturbed him.

It was as if the past five years had never happened, she had not grown an inch nor changed since that day she was lost to him. He faced away, unwilling to stare back into Byleth's eyes as it locked onto him as she got closer.

The ghost of his beloved professor stood there, mocking his existence, his failure to save her. Her hand outstretched, begging for him to reach for it.

"I should've known… that one day… you would be haunting me as well"


End file.
